How weasel 2GB management killed talkback radio.
Friday, 14 February 2025
You have to feel for Ben Fordham on 2GB.
This morning, Sydney was caught in the middle of a wild-cat train strike.
There were massive delays and cancelations. Queues and crowds all over the metropolitan area … and Ben can’t get a call in from people caught in the middle of it all.
Fordham might not be the ‘#1 King of the Airwaves’ that Alan Jones was on Sydney radio but he still has a big audience.
But 2GB’s talkback lines didn’t light up. Between 6:30am and 7, we counted only four callers sharing their ‘train chaos’ experience on the radio. It was underwhelming.
Ben even started, slightly desperately, pleading with his audience to ring in. Have a listen (above):
“Please phone 131873.We need to hear your voice.I love all the text messages coming through but pick up the phone and use your voice”.
It just didn’t happen. People kept texting.
2GB’s clumsy management has done this to the once-great radio station.
People rarely ring-in anymore.
But this was not an accident.
Text messages are ultra-safe and easily vetted. What people get to say on the radio is very controllable when you can pick and choose which message you read out.
The result is, dissenting views are rarely ever heard on 2GB. The announcers are just about never held to account by the audience with a different take. And contentious topics like Islam, transgenderism, vaccines and racial issues just about never get properly debated on 2GB these days.
This SMS thing started during COVID when people like Ray Hadley tried to stop giving a voice to the anti-lockdown, anti-vax message. Hadley toed the line and supported locking people in their homes. He was the Government PR man.
People who didn’t support compulsory everything were branded “conspiracy theorists” and blocked from having a view.
And 2GB has never recovered. The station is so ultra-safe now that it’s quite boring.
The station’s underwhelming management Tom Malone and Greg Byrnes have de-balled 2GB for commercial reasons … to avoid controversy.
No complaints equals no problems and no problems equals no advertisers getting the shits. It’s made THEIR job easier – but it’s killing 2GB’s audience.
They have changed the habits of a city that used to love calling in to openline radio.
Changed it for the worst.
When 2GB’s biggest star can barely get a call about a snap train strike, you know they’ve killed the talkback genre.
This is what happens when weak managers take control.